Article 20 of the Penal Code

  Penal Code

They are exempt from criminal liability:

1. Anyone who, at the time of committing the criminal offense, due to any anomaly or psychological alteration, cannot understand the illegality of the act or act in accordance with that understanding.

The transitory mental disorder will not exempt from punishment when it has been provoked by the subject with the purpose of committing the crime or he has foreseen or should have foreseen its commission.

2. Anyone who, at the time of committing the criminal offense, is in a state of full intoxication due to the consumption of alcoholic beverages, toxic drugs, narcotics, psychotropic substances or others that produce similar effects, provided that he or she has not been searched for the purpose of commit it or his commission was not foreseen or should not have been foreseen, or is under the influence of a withdrawal syndrome, due to his dependence on such substances, which prevents him from understanding the illegality of the act or acting in accordance with that understanding.

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3.º He who, due to suffering alterations in perception since birth or childhood, has seriously altered awareness of reality.

4. Anyone who acts in defense of the person or rights of his or her own or others, provided that the following requirements are met:

First. Illegal aggression. In the case of defense of property, an attack on property that constitutes a crime and puts it in serious danger of imminent deterioration or loss will be considered illegitimate aggression. In case of defense of the dwelling or its premises, improper entry into that or these will be considered unlawful aggression.

Second. Need rational means employed to prevent or repel.

Third. Lack of sufficient provocation by the defender.

5. He who, in state of need, to avoid harm to oneself or others, injure a legal good of another person or infringes a duty, provided that the following requirements are met:

First. That the evil caused is not greater than that which is being avoided.

Second. That the situation of need has not been intentionally caused by the subject.

Third. That the needy person does not have, due to his job or position, an obligation to sacrifice himself.

6. He who acts driven by insurmountable fear.

7. Anyone who acts in compliance with a duty or in the legitimate exercise of a right, office or position.

In the cases of the first three numbers, the following will be applied, if applicable: security measures provided for in this Code.

art 20 cp

Article 20 of Penal Code regulates the causes that exempt from criminal responsibility.

Some of the circumstances that may exempt from criminal liability are non-transitory psychological anomalies or alterations, full intoxication due to the consumption of alcoholic beverages or toxic drugs at the time of committing the criminal offense, whoever acts in self defense, the state of need or alterations in awareness of reality, among other causes.

The objective of criminal law with this provision is to catalog the causes of justification and blamelessness. That is to say, a person may have carried out the iter criminis that a crime requires, and will not be punished, because the context in which he acted justifies his punishable conduct.

  • Penal Code
    • BOOK I: General provisions on crimes, responsible persons, penalties, security measures and other consequences of criminal offenses
      • Title I: Criminal offense
        • Chapter II: Of the causes that exempt from criminal responsibility